Course Description

Focusing on the study of politics and government in Africa, this course surveys the different approaches used to examine the history of political development on the African continent as well as the institutional structure of the African states. We will explore some of the dimensions of social change and poltical reform in Post-Colonial Africa, with special reference to factors such as nationalism, ethnicity, state dysfunctionality, the problem of political order, democratization, and development, doing so against the backdrop of the debate between Afro-pessimism and Afro-optimism as we grapple with the fate of the continent -- the subject of various controversies.